though
during the process he caught sight of a bald patch on his head, and was
led mournfully to reflect: "Alas! Why did I give way to such despair?
Surely I need not have torn my hair out so freely?"

Then, when the tailor had been paid, our hero left the town. But no
longer was he the old Chichikov--he was only a ruin of what he had been,
and his frame of mind might have been compared to a building recently
pulled down to make room for a new one, while the new one had not yet
been erected owing to the non-receipt of the plans from the architect.
Murazov, too, had departed, but at an earlier hour, and in a tilt-waggon
with Ivan Potapitch.

An hour later the Governor-General issued to all and sundry officials
a notice that, on the occasion of his departure for St. Petersburg,
he would be glad to see the corps of tchinovniks at a private meeting.
Accordingly all ranks and grades of officialdom repaired to his
residence, and there awaited--not without a certain measure of
trepidation and of searching of heart--the Governor-General's entry.
When that took place he looked neither clear nor dull. Yet his bearing
was proud, and his step assured. The tchinovniks bowed--some of them to
the waist, and he answered their salutations with a slight inclination
of the head. Then he spoke as follows:

"Since I am about to pay a visit to St. Petersburg, I have thought it
right to meet you, and to explain to you privately my reasons for doing
so. An affair of a most scandalous character has taken place in our
midst. To what affair I am referring I think most of those present will
guess. Now, an automatic process has led to that affair bringing about
the discovery of other matters. Those matters are no less dishonourable
than the primary one; and to that I regret to have to add that there
stand involved in them certain persons whom I had hitherto believed
to be honourable. Of the object aimed at by those who have complicated
matters to the point of making their resolution almost impossible by
ordinary methods I am aware; as also I am aware of the identity of the
ringleader, despite the skill with which he has sought to conceal his
share in the scandal. But the principal point is, that I propose to
decide these matters, not by formal documentary process, but by the
more summary process of court-martial, and that I hope, when the
circumstances have been laid before his Imperial Majesty, to receive
from him authority to adopt the course